The First Sign

Maybe it's because I need more important things to do with my time. Or maybe it's because I think about food too much. But I get very excited when a new kosher restaurant/fast-food joint/grocery opens up in my neighborhood. I know I've gotta try their schawarma, their burgers, their sushi, whatever they've got.

And then the inevitable occurs. The prices slowly creep up, and the level of service slowly creeps down. Your steak sub has more lettuce than steak in it. They keep misplacing your order. Their food tastes like oil.

After far too many of these experiences, I've come to realize the precise point when a business is going south: it's when they start using generic bags.

Think about it. When was the last time you went to Starbucks and got an "I Love NY" bag? Or went to the Gap and, instead of getting their signature navy blue bag, got a quasi-transparent bag that says "Thank You" fifteen times on it?

I was a big Circa fan for a while. I loved the make-your-own pasta bar, and their sushi was good, too. Then one day I got some stuff to go, and guess what? No more "Circa" bags. They gave me a plain white shopping bag. (Or it might've been one of those "Thank You" jobs.) Not long after that, they stopped the make-your-own-pasta thing, and now, they're no longer.

For a while, I was getting takeout from Dougie's, too. And the bags with that classic logo was replaced by a plain opaque plastic bag. And now, they're gone too.

My favorite was when a heimishe grocery near me stopped using their own bags, and got a whole run of bags from some church in South Carolina. There were rabbis in my neighborhood walking around with challahs in bags with psukim from John and Romans. That place: gonzo.

I don't know how many of you notice the bag you get your food in, but maybe you should pay attention next time. It could be the sign of something coming.